Rusted

It went from about 40% to 90% as I shivered in the dome. There's a beautiful disturbed area near the SW limb. It's not art but it's all my own work.

I'm a martyr to scrap metal! It can never resist me!

Yes I spotted that. Neat!

It was certainly a very neat looking set-up! It puts my bit of scrap, alloy angle to shame!

Hi John, I'm doing it all wrong! Yours looks like a supercharger on a blown V8 dragster!

Beautifully done!

Those of you who like helical focusers, or who [like me] have no choice in using them, can now have motor drive focusing. Moreover, you can do so at quite low cost and using very few tools or materials. Being able to focus without touching the telescope is a huge bonus while imaging. I use a long throw, [20mm] 2" helical focuser on my H-alpha, modified PST, 6" solar telescope. Such a long telescope on a high pier and mounting often makes it difficult to reach the focuser. Particularly when the computer monitor or laptop cannot be brought to the focuser. Apart from a Skywatcher DC focuser, motor kit you'll need a 20T GT2 timing pulley and a 280T GT2 timing belt. You'll also need a scrap of aluminium angle profile. A drill of some sort and a 5mm twist drill. A couple of long 5mm screws and lots of nuts [or Nyloc nuts] plus two 64mm stainless steel screw [hose] clamps.

I have removed the 7" from the mounting and now have only the iStar 6" f/10 H-alpha aboard. It didn't keep the cloud away and I had only a very short window before 8am. 100 of 500 frames. x2 WO Barlow. Needed too much gain to capture anything at all. Solid cloud now. Not proud of these quick daubs.

The telescope itself matters. Modern coatings and optics can outshine old ones regardless of the number of optical components. I have very recently compared my 85mm spotting scope with my trusty, Vixen M90mm f/11 achromatic refractor at the same magnifications. Absolutely no contest on brightness, sharpness and field of view on terrestrial subjects. The Vixen was well behind at 30x, 40x and 60x. I shall be grabbing my spotting scope, with a freshly baked solar foil filter, for scanning the sun for visible sunspots in future. It is only 1/3 the length of the Vixen and needs no special set up. Its very shortness means it can be quickly plonked onto a tripod with video head. The Vixen's meter-long tube has enough moment to make a decent old tripod and video head look downright flimsy. Boi-oi-oi-oi-ng. Mounting long telescopes is a real pain in the wallet and often one's back from lifting them into place. Ask me how I know? [6" f/10 and 7" f/12 refractors plus a 10" f/8 Newt.] The best view I have ever had of M42 was with my first, home-made mirror. An 8.75" at F3.8. With more flying gulls than a sunny seaside. [Coma!] Now what was the question again?

Thanks Peter. All my images of the other AR are hopeless. My ZWOASI174MM camera has suddenly developed coarse graininess. It does the same regardless of any settings, software or source. I thought it might be electrical noise from a "dirty" PS but can't make it go away so far. I am experimenting with different cables and trying the indoor PC.

Thank Peter. You wouldn't believe the struggle I had to wrench this image from the jaws of defeat! Nice to see some activity on the disk.

Yes, but you make up for it in skill at imaging which others can only dream of.

It has been an incredibly frustrating morning! Cloud! Camera graininess. Failed flats. Hours of messing about for only one image. It's the same one in B&W and colour. Two for the price of one?

Thanks, but I have a very long way to go before I even begin to match your superb images.

Thanks Freddie. IT has made a huge difference. I just need to make the poly "flat" screen far more practical. I was using a 6' pole to drape a huge, bin bag over the telescope objective today. The 4' pole needed me to stand on a beer crate.

You are a clever chap! What about concealed compression springs in blind holes to hold it open until tightened down?

Thank you Peter. I am a martyr to cloud today. I hope you are recovering from your recent ill health?

Captured the first with a flat. Then nothing but solid cloud ever since.

Thanks Pete. I think the seeing conditions were far more responsible than I was.

I use SharpCap too. Right at the top of the screen in SharpCap there is a Capture heading. Cover your objective with your poly bag and then choose Capture Flat. You get a choice of number of frames. Keep that number small as it takes some time to capture a Flat. Now just increase the gain until you get an OK. Now you can Start your Flat capture. Once it has captured your flat you can remove the poly bag. Don't move the telescope between the two captures. Now start your normal video capture from the same drop down box. The Flat will automatically be loaded on top of the captured video. So when you open your video in AS!3 it will already be evenly lit. At this point you will have become an expert imager and can start offering advice on Flats. I finally managed my own very first flat today. Once I twigged the simple routine it was easy!

The seeing is improving!

I was out there at 7am but took a while to get some detail. Thanks to Damian's suggestion I tried a bin bag and increased the gain to capture the flat. Pale spot, middle left of the sun.

Your top right or ours? Making great progress Roger! Now you need to capture a flat to "flatten" the brightness across the image.

I don't think anybody really discovers how tightly something needs to be focused for the best images. At least, not until they get a motor focuser. Manual focusing has everything wrong with it. The telescope moves when you focus. Just when you want it to be perfectly still! Even a slow motion knob is rather pointless if the image is moving every time you touch it.

The little "Skywatcher" DC motor is really quite powerful. You can use a toothed GT2 "timing" belt in any length you need. The belt will happily drive any focuser knob by friction alone. It also looks smarter than most of the commercial focuser motors. Being quite at home on the finest focusers available. It is far more compact than most commercial focuser motors. Most of which stick out of the side of focuser knob instead of being folded over the shaft. I made a simple, plastic bracket to grip my Feather touch focuser without modification. The belts and timing pulleys cost only small change thanks to the interest in 3D printing. https://fullerscopes.blogspot.com/2019/07/monday-15th-july-2019-motor-focuser-pt3.html